In this
new
260-page book Flatpicking Guitar Magazine editor Dan Miller
presents three different approaches to learning how to develop creative,
interesting, and tasteful melody-based solos on the acoustic guitar. After
outlining the process of finding key, chords, and melody on the guitar by ear,
the first approach to developing a solo uses a variety of guitar techniques to
embellish and add to the melody. Each technique is taught using many song
examples. The techniques­ start with the Carter style chord-melody
technique and then add hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends, double stops,
various chord strum patterns, bass runs, crosspicking, drone strings, tremolo,
neighboring notes, and short scale runs.

The second approach that is presented is one based on theory and scales. Five
different scale “colors” are addressed: the major pentatonic scale, the major
scale, the major blues scale, the minor pentatonic scale, and the minor blues
scale. For each scale a number of scale pattern exercises and song
examples are given. Additionally, tips are provided regarding the use of
melodic and vocal phrasing, limiting exercises, dynamics, and note articulation
in creating a solo that fits the mood, groove, feel, and meaning of the
song. Each scale is first presented by itself, through exercises and
examples, so that the reader can get a feel for its unique “color.” Then
these scales are combined to show how several scale colors can be used in the
same solo. Next, the author shows how to combine the scale, or
“theoretical approach,” with the technique approach of the first section of the
book.

The final approach to developing a solo is the “intuitive
approach.” In this section the author gives you a series of exercises
that are designed to get you out of your analytical left brain and get into
your intuitive, creative, and insightful right brain. This section will
help you develop more feeling and emotion in your playing as you learn how to
play from your “gut” instead of your analytical brain or memory.

Over 60 individual songs are presented as examples in this book. For
each song, the song melody is given, and then an example arrangement is
shown. For many songs, more than one arrangement is presented. The
old folk song “John Henry” is used as the main example in each section of the
book and for that song a total of 25 different arrangements are shown.
Over
150 song arrangements
are included in this book.

This book is not a book of song arrangements that are meant for you to
learn, memorize, and perform by rote. This book is designed to teach you
how to take any song melody and create your own arrangements based on that
melody. Ultimately, the techniques, methods, and ideas that are presented
in this book will not only enable you to create an endless number of
interesting and tasteful melody-based arrangements and variations for any songs
that you want to learn, they will also lead you to a high level of comfort with
improvisation of any song melody.